February 27 is celebrated as World NGO Day, International Anti-Bullying Day, International Optimist Day and International Polar Bear Day. This day has been marked in different years by events that have influenced statehood, wars, science, culture and political upheavals in different parts of the world.
World NGO Day
This day was initiated by representatives of the public sector of the Baltic countries, and the date received international recognition after support within the United Nations. The day is dedicated to the role of independent public associations in the development of society, the protection of human rights, the provision of humanitarian aid, environmental and social projects. Non-governmental organizations work at the local, national and international levels and are financed by contributions, grants and charitable donations.
The first modern non-governmental organizations emerged in the 19th century in Europe and the United States, and after the creation of the United Nations in 1945, they were granted consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. Today, there are tens of thousands of international and millions of national NGOs operating in the world. They participate in the development of legislative initiatives, election monitoring, documenting war crimes, responding to emergencies, and implementing educational programs.
Interesting facts
The term “non-governmental organization” was first enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations in 1945, which provided for the possibility of cooperation with public associations through the Economic and Social Council.
The oldest international humanitarian organization is considered to be the International Committee of the Red Cross, established in 1863 in Geneva; its activities became the basis for the formation of modern international humanitarian law.
Amnesty International began with a newspaper article about imprisoned students in Portugal, and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to the fight against torture.
In Ukraine, the rapid growth of the number of NGOs occurred after 2014; according to state registers, the number of public organizations increased by tens of thousands in a few years due to the volunteer movement and assistance from the army.
After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, Ukrainian charitable foundations collected billions of hryvnias of private donations in a matter of months, which became an unprecedented example of self-organization of society in Europe.
Ukrainian human rights organizations document war crimes for submission to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and some of this data is already being used in international investigations.
In the world, there are so-called GONGOs — organizations created or controlled by governments to simulate civic activism; The term emerged in the 1980s as part of discussions about the transparency of international institutions.
According to international studies, if the public sector in the world were to be combined into a separate economy, it would be comparable in terms of employment to one of the largest economies in the world, as millions of people work in NGOs on a permanent basis or as volunteers.
International Anti-Bullying Day
This day is celebrated twice a year – in February and November. The initiative was launched by the Canadian organization Stand for the Silent in 2008 after tragic cases of teenage suicides related to bullying. The symbol of the day is wearing pink or blue clothing as a sign of support for victims. The event is aimed at raising awareness about physical, psychological and cyberbullying and creating a safer environment in schools and communities.
Bullying is defined as systematic aggressive harassment with an imbalance of power between the perpetrator and the victim. With the spread of social networks, the problem has taken on new forms, in particular due to the anonymity and speed of content distribution. According to UNICEF, a significant proportion of adolescents in different countries of the world face various manifestations of bullying at school or online. In Ukraine, since 2019, legal liability for bullying in educational institutions has been in force, which provides for administrative fines and mandatory participation in correctional programs.
Interesting facts
In the 1970s, Norwegian psychologist Dan Olveus was one of the first to systematically study school bullying; the impetus was the suicides of three teenagers in Norway, after which the state implemented a nationwide program to combat bullying.
The term “cyberbullying” began to be actively used in the early 2000s with the spread of mobile phones and social networks, and the first court cases regarding online bullying appeared before many countries adopted separate laws on this.
Studies show that bullying most often occurs not in the classroom during a lesson, but in places with minimal adult supervision – corridors, locker rooms, on the schoolyard and in online chat rooms.
About half of children who are subjected to prolonged bullying do not tell anyone about it, explaining their silence by fear of retaliation or the belief that adults will not be able to help.
In Finland, the national KiVa program demonstrated a decrease in the level of repeated bullying in schools that systematically implemented a model of working with witnesses of aggression, and not only with the offender and victim.
In Ukraine, in 2019, amendments to the legislation came into force that for the first time introduced administrative liability for bullying in educational institutions; the first court decisions concerned not only students, but also parents of minor offenders.
Psychologists have found that children who regularly act as aggressors are at higher risk of legal problems and addictions in adulthood if the behavior was not corrected in adolescence.
Neuropsychological studies show that social rejection activates the same areas of the brain as physical pain, so the emotional consequences of bullying can be as intense as physical injury.
During distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases of cyberbullying increased in some countries, although physical manifestations of school bullying temporarily decreased.
The first “Pink Shirt Day” in Canada arose as a spontaneous initiative of high school students who distributed dozens of pink T-shirts to their classmates in support of a boy who was bullied for wearing this color.
Studies show that witnesses to bullying do not intervene in most cases, but even brief verbal support from a peer significantly reduces the duration of the incident.
In Ukraine, after amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, courts began to issue decisions on fines to parents of minor offenders, and the first cases were considered in 2019.
Psychologists note that prolonged bullying can affect the structure of a teenager’s self-esteem and increase the risk of depressive disorders in adulthood.
International Optimist Day
This day is unofficial and is not established by international organizations, but has spread through the media and community initiatives that promote positive thinking. The day is related to the topic of psychological resilience, attitude to uncertainty, and a person’s ability to interpret future events in a positive way.
The ideas of optimism as a worldview position have developed in philosophy and psychology. In a scientific context, optimism is studied as a cognitive style that influences behavioral decisions, risk-taking, financial expectations, and even physical health. In the 20th and 21st centuries, this topic became part of research in positive psychology, neurobiology, and behavioral economics.
Interesting facts
The satirical novel Candide Candide was written as a criticism of the philosophical optimism of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and after its publication, the word “optimism” acquired an ironic connotation in 18th-century European culture.
In the 1980s, psychologist Martin Seligman experimentally proved that a person’s style of explaining events can be changed through cognitive exercises, and this affects resistance to depression.
Studies among US military personnel showed that soldiers with higher levels of optimism were less likely to leave service in the first years of their contract and were better trained in extreme conditions.
Economists use the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index to measure public optimism about the economy, and sharp declines in this indicator often precede recessions.
Neuroscientists have found that optimistic people have more active brain areas associated with reward processing, such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
Studies of longevity have found that women with the highest levels of optimism lived 5–15 percent longer, on average, compared to the least optimistic groups.
During NASA space missions, psychological assessment of candidates includes determining the level of optimism, since a pessimistic thinking style correlates with poorer adaptation to isolation.
In Ukraine, after February 24, 2022, sociological surveys recorded a consistently high level of citizens’ faith in the country’s future, even against the backdrop of hostilities, which researchers attribute to a collective form of optimism as a survival mechanism.
International Polar Bear Day
The day was initiated by the conservation organization Polar Bears International, which draws attention to the state of the population of this species and changes in the Arctic ecosystem. The date was chosen during the period when females with cubs are in dens, which emphasizes the vulnerability of the species. The polar bear is considered one of the key predators of the Arctic and an indicator of climate processes in the region.
Melting sea ice directly affects the ability of polar bears to hunt seals, which are their main prey. Due to the reduction of ice areas, animals are forced to swim longer distances and more often come to human settlements in search of food. According to scientists, if the current rate of warming continues, a significant part of the population may lose suitable habitat by the end of the 21st century.
Interesting facts
The polar bear is called Ursus maritimus in Latin, which means “sea bear,” because it spends most of its life on sea ice.
Its skin is black, and its fur is transparent and hollow inside, which helps it retain heat and camouflage itself in the snow.
Polar bears can smell a seal from over a kilometer away under a meter of snow.
An adult male can weigh over 1,300 pounds, but during prolonged starvation can lose up to 30 percent of its body weight.
They are able to swim for tens of kilometers without resting; cases of swimming over 100 kilometers in open water have been recorded.
Canada is home to about two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population, and it is there that strict quotas are in place for traditional hunting by indigenous peoples.
Due to the warming climate in the Arctic, cases of polar bear-grizzly bear hybridization have become more frequent, and such animals have been repeatedly recorded in the wild.
Polar bears do not hibernate; only pregnant females spend several months in a den, usually giving birth to two cubs weighing about half a kilogram each.
Historical events on this day
380 – Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire after the edict of the emperors Theodosius I, Gratian and Valentinian II, which obliged subjects to profess the Nicene Creed; this decision changed the religious map of Europe and determined the further development of the Christian tradition.
425 – Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II founded the University of Constantinople, which became one of the leading centers of learning in the Eastern Roman Empire and a center for the training of officials and theologians.
1593 – Japanese forces defeated Sino-Korean forces at the Battle of Pyokjegwan during the Imjin War, demonstrating the effectiveness of new military tactics and firearms.
1594 – Henry IV of the Bourbon dynasty ascended the French throne, marking the beginning of a new royal line and ending a long period of religious wars in France.
1617 – Muscovy and Sweden signed the Treaty of Stolbovo, which deprived Muscovy of access to the Baltic Sea, which determined its foreign policy for decades.
1782 – The British Parliament voted to end hostilities against the North American colonies, a step toward recognizing the independence of the United States.
1813 – The Treaty of Kalisz was signed between Prussia and the Russian Empire, forming part of the anti-Napoleonic coalition.
1844 – The Dominican Republic declared independence from Haiti after 22 years of unification of the island under Haitian rule.
1870 – The Japanese government officially adopted the national flag with a red sun disk, which became a symbol of the modernized empire of the Meiji period.
1883 – Oscar Hammerstein patented a cigar rolling machine, which accelerated the production of tobacco products and transformed the industry.
1885 – The German Empire announced the creation of the colony of German East Africa, expanding its presence on the continent within the colonial division of Africa.
1900 – The Bayern football club was founded in Munich, which later became one of the most successful clubs in Europe.
1919 – The Entente Commission held a meeting with the Chief Ataman Symon Petliura, discussing the situation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in post-war Europe.
1919 – The Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed as part of the Soviet project to expand power westward.
1932 – The first five regions were formed in the Ukrainian SSR — Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Odessa, and Kharkiv, which changed the administrative system of the republic.
1932 – An attempted military coup, known as the Mäntsälä Uprising, began in Finland, which ended without the establishment of a dictatorship.
1932 – James Chadwick’s report on the possible existence of the neutron was published in the journal Nature, which became a breakthrough in nuclear physics.
1933 – The Reichstag fire occurred in Berlin, which Adolf Hitler used to restrict civil liberties and strengthen the Nazi dictatorship.
1939 – The Union of Composers of Ukraine was created as a professional association of artists within the Soviet cultural system.
1942 – In Babyn Yar, Nazi troops carried out mass executions of members of the Ukrainian nationalist underground, continuing a wave of punitive actions.
1942 – The Battle of the Java Sea between Japanese and Allied forces began, part of the struggle for control of Southeast Asia.
1943 – Arrests of Jews in mixed marriages began in Berlin, which caused open protests by their relatives in the city center.
1944 – In the Chechen village of Haibach, NKVD units carried out a mass burning of civilians during the deportation of Chechens.
1952 – The United Nations held its first meeting at its new headquarters in New York, which became a symbol of post-war international diplomacy.
1965 – The first flight of the An-22 Antey transport aircraft, created at Oleg Antonov’s Design Bureau in Kyiv, took place; it was the world’s first wide-body military transport aircraft.
1971 – Janis Joplin’s album “Pearl” topped the US charts and stayed there for nine weeks, becoming the singer’s posthumous commercial success.
1974 – The first issue of People magazine was published in New York with a million copies, launching a new format of mass celebrity coverage.
1976 – The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was proclaimed in Western Sahara, which became the stage of a long-running conflict over the region.
1980 – Gloria Gaynor won a Grammy Award for the song “I Will Survive”, which became one of the most famous hits of the disco era.
1988 – Mass pogroms of the Armenian population began in the city of Sumgait, which exacerbated the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
1990 – The Supreme Soviet of the USSR introduced the position of the President of the USSR, changing the structure of power on the eve of the collapse of the state.
1991 – US President George Herbert Walker Bush announced the liberation of Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm, which effectively ended the active phase of the Persian Gulf War.
2010 – An 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile, one of the most powerful in the 21st century, causing widespread destruction and a tsunami.
2014 – Russian military personnel without insignia seized the parliament and government buildings of Crimea, which marked the beginning of the open phase of the occupation of the peninsula.
2015 – Opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead near the Kremlin in Moscow, his murder sparking widespread international outrage.
2015 – Hundreds of people were killed and injured in Afghanistan after avalanches struck over several days, one of the country’s most tragic natural disasters in recent years.
